Oakley’s Red Barn nearly finished

This isn’t just any ordinary barn. It will be known as The Red Barn, said Oakley Mayor Wade Woolstenhulme.

"It’s will be like a cultural hall and reception center," Woolstenhulme said during an interview with The Park Record. "We could use it during our annual Fourth of July Celebration to host special activities for our VIPs and sponsors and the luncheon for the rodeo contestants."

The idea to build a new facility came from Oakley’s rodeo committee three years ago.

"As we got talking more about it, we thought it would be great to have a nice building that could be used for formal weddings, wedding receptions and things like that," he said. "So, we built the barn with that in mind."

The committee applied for a grant from the RAP Tax, according to Woolstenhulme.

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"We asked for and received $80,000 and that was enough to put the shell up," he said. "Then we budgeted another $150,000 and we received a $10,000 donation from an unnamed member of the community. I think when it’s all said and done, the total cost will be about $300,000 to $400,000."

That’s a good deal, because it is constructed from "top-of-the-line" materials, the mayor said.

"It’s got granite countertops in the kitchen and all the wood we used was milled in the valley," he said. "The sawmill next door logged the staircases from big timber and we acid-stained it to make it look like old barn wood. So when you go inside, it will have this old-barn finish."

In addition to the main floor, the Red Barn features a kitchen area, restrooms and an upstairs balcony.

"That’s where the brides and grooms can prepare for their evenings," Woolstenhulme said.

The building is located at Oakley’s Recreation Complex at 4300 S.R. 32.

"In addition to weddings and such, we’ll move our Patriotic program from the recreation complex to the barn on the Fourth of July," said the mayor. "We plan to have all of our activities during that day at the barn, so we won’t have to run back and forth from City Hall during that time.

"We also think it will boost attendance, because everyone will just have to walk across the parking lot to see the Junior Rodeo and walk back to eat the barbecue," he said. "It will be very convenient, not only for us, but also for people who come to the rodeo."

The city council is discussing additional uses for the venue.

"It may be used for dances and things like that, but we haven’t talked about these things in depth," Woolstenhulme said. "We do want to monitor the types of activities that we will hold in the barn because it will have some nice wagon-wheel [candelabras] and we don’t want it to turn into a playground."

Meanwhile, crews are nearly done with the construction.

"We still have a lot of cleaning up to do, but we’re excited to have this new space in our town," Woolstenhulme said. "We’re just ready to complete it and hope that will happen by the end of the month.

"We would like to have it usable by Feb. 1, and we’ve already have it reserved for a reception that will be held on Feb. 7, so we’re trying to get all the finishing touches done so we can host it."